After a week in Almerimar we decided that this marina was not ideal for our first winter afloat as it was a holiday resort and it appeared that most of the holiday makers had gone home already, consequently the bars were closing and it was only September! So we decided to move on to Cartagena which was 110 miles along the coast. Studying the pilot guide it looked like the marinas in-between could not accommodate Max's draught so that meant that we would have to make the passage in one shot. This would require an overnight passage as the whole journey would take approx. 22hours and to arrive in daylight (always a good idea with an unfamiliar harbour) we should leave about 13.00hrs.
So just after 13.00hrs on the 21st we left Almerimar marina in glorious sunshine with a north-westerly wind forecast it should provide us with a great broad reach to the Cabo de Gata and then a beam reach to Cartagena, fantastic, just what we wanted.
But as we headed across Almeria Bay the wind was coming from the east so was on the nose and we had to motor. As long as it stays in that direction we should have a close reach up to Cartagena so still looking good for a nice sail through the night. We had an uneventful motor to the Cabo with just a few super yachts passing in the other direction and as they passed we could see the owners stood on their flying bridges (G&T's in hand) admiring Max's beauty (LOL not!!!).
As we approached the Cabo the light was fading and Max started to disturb a number of shoals of flying fish which promptly took off from near our bow and flew some 50 meters before returning to the sea. This was amazing sight and went on for about 30 minutes.
Unfortunately as we rounded the Cabo the wind backed! Consequently we had the wind on the nose again (so much for the forecast) therefore we had to continue burning more hydrocarbons using the engine.
At about 9pm the sun had disappeared completely and we were in almost total darkness as the moon had not yet risen. The only light we had came from a few small towns along the coast and a light house. Consequently it was pitch black ahead, behind or on our starboard side.
We decided to run a 1 hour watch pattern during the night so Carole started the first watch and I settled down in the cockpit alongside her for a snooze. In the end Carole stayed on watch for 2 hours until midnight when I took over for the next 2 hours. It was still completely dark as the moon was nowhere to be seen. There were a few fishing vessels on our starboard side but probably about 5 miles away, so no concerns of running into their nets.
The moon came up at 2am when Carole came back on watch but was quickly covered by clouds so a classical 'now you see it, now you don't' moment and back to darkness.
To be honest motoring on a night passage is pretty boring but they have to be done from time to time. As the time approached 4am, my No. 1 (and only one, Carole) spotted a ship coming our way which was lit up like a Christmas tree. Her twin masthead lights were almost in-line which meant that she was virtually heading straight for us probably at 4 times our speed!! When she was about 5 miles out we could see through the binoculars that she was either a ro-ro ferry or a cruise ship and her masthead lights were still aligned, not good! At her current speed she will be with us in about 15 minutes so my No.1 disturbed me from my slumber and requested that I went below to switch on our SeaME (active radar reflector) which had the desired effect as within 2 minutes the ship had altered course a good 30degs to starboard and was no longer a concern for us. She headed off into the distance and into Cartagena.
At 8am we were easing past 2 ships anchored outside Cartagena when the sun came up and bathed us in its rays. As we entered the harbour there was a Spanish navy auxiliary vessel leaving which meant that we had to slow down to create room for it to manoeuvre out of the harbour breakwaters. Then on entering the harbour we could see two destroyers berthed on our right along with a few more auxiliary ships. We hailed the marina on the VHF radio and they answered immediately and told us they would be on the pontoon to welcome us and help us with our lines, tremendous, just what we needed after a long night!
Within 30mins Alberto (the mariniero) had helped us berth, so we switched off all the Nav systems and crawled into our bunk for a well-deserved sleep.